626 TALKS ON " AT THE FEET OF THE MASTER "

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well and courteously received. I think there are
many races who are less uncourteous than our
common folk are. It seems to me0 the whole question
of the treatment of foreigners is only obscurely under-
stood. I always felt that if a foreigner comes to
visit your country you are in relation of host towards
him, and that it is your duty to make his path easy
and to give him as good an impression of your people
and your country as you can. That seems a reason-
able thing to do ; but I know that is not the position
very commonly taken up, and certainly, among the
common people, a great deal of rudeness and crass
ignorance is often shown in their attitude towards
foreigners. All such prejudices as that simply come
from want of knowledge; and that is a superstition,
I suppose.

In the Napoleonic era there was a superstition in
England that all Frenchmen were practically devils,
fighting against us with the full knowledge that they
were on the wrong sid^ and against the light and so
on ; but that is a very foolish attitude. Even to-day you
may get cases where a vast number of people are
obsessed by one dominant idea, and to become obsessed
with a dominant idea is to become a monomaniac. You
will find cases where a whole nation is, for the time
being, really swept off its feet by such an idea. . A very
unfortunate thing it is when that happens, and under
the influence of such a temporary monomania very
dreadful atrocities are committed; horrible things are